Questionable Calls
by illman
Summary: In a crisis normal judgement is suspended, how will the CSIs sort out the mess following a shooting ? COMPLETE
1. Default Chapter

Questionable Calls

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Note: Frustration with human nature along with some boredom drove me to write this. To the person whose comment started this story. (Was that one serious, or just mocking me?)

Some characters don't come off to well in this, if that bothers you, don't read. Now, on with it:

The house was in a middle-class neighbour hood. It was rather run-down compared with the neighbouring houses. Instead of a front lawn, which in the arid Las Vegas climate required constant irrigation, the owner had simply decorated the area with large stones. Even from the distance of the sidewalk one could see that the windows were dirty and had not been washed in years. 

"Why would she hire a domestic? Judging by the looks of this, Catherine waved her had at the house, the winning the beautiful home award isn't one of Mrs Jansen's priorities." 

"Well, maybe she wanted to improve on it and Nura Fadira didn't live up to her expectations" Brass theorized sarcastically. "If we are lucky, she hasn't yet gotten rid of the couch."

"Let's hope not" Nick walked up to the front door and rang the bell. The door was opened promptly by a woman in her 40ties, wearing a morning robe, looking like she had just gotten out of bed.

"Mrs. Jansen, we have a warrant to search your residence", Brass handed the document to the not very amused looking Mrs. Jansen.

"Do what you have to do", she said in a neutral tone, not even taking  a look at the document.

She let them in, closing the door behind them.

"We will need to have a look at your couch, Mrs Jansen." Nick said.

"It's right in the living room. This way." Mrs. Jansen indicated the way.

Catherine, Nick and Brass walked down the corridor into the spacious living room.

Something in Mrs Jansen demeanour struck Nick as odd. It was something in her voice. He had had many dealings with suspects, both the innocent and the guilty, but this was different, a calm and somewhat resigned.

While he had been pondering, Catherine and Brass had proceeded to the large beige couch standing at the centre of the room. The couch had two drawers in the base, allowing to store pillows and the like. If their suspicions were right, Mrs. Jansen had stored more then pillows there however.  The fibre they had found in the wounds of a dead young woman indicated that she had been here. Mrs Jansen had claimed that the victim, Nura Fadira, had not been at her residence for months, but the evidence was telling a different story.

Catherine examined the fabric of the couch, which was already thready and worn. Mrs. Jansen stood next to them, her face calm. When Brass pulled open the drawer of the couch, everything spun out of control.

Note: Sorry, very short chapter, but it makes more sense that way.


	2. Adrift

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Too fast, too much.

The pieces just wouldn't fit together. He could clearly remember what he had seen, what he had heard and what he had felt, but it would not fit together into a continuous mental movie. As if the impressions were from three different events, But they weren't. It had all happened at once. It had happened too fast, too fast to understand.

Nick was sitting on the ground, unaware of what was going on around him, as he tried to understand what had just happened. He could not say how long ago, was it seconds, minutes or hours?

He remembered. Being scared, very scared, being afraid for his life and the lives of his co-workers. But when he tried to picture the events, it felts distant as if he had not really been there. A rational part of his mind told him that this was due to shock and that it would pass. But it still scared him, made him feel like he was going to lose his mind. He was trapped, trapped between construction a mental image that he could process and between reacting to the outside world, There was something important, things he had to know. But what, it was all so confusing. Too much. The images, and sounds kept flashing in his mind. Why would it not stop? Too much.

Someone was taking something from his hand, he let go without resisting, not bothering to look up. Then someone, maybe the same someone, was pulling on his arm, wanting him to get. Why would they not leave him alone? Something important, he should do something, but what. He followed to upward tuck and reluctantly got to his feet, only to lose his balance immediately, painfully reconnecting with the hardwood floor. He wanted no more of it.

~~~~

Brass was not having much more luck with reality than Nick. Pain from his arm hindered all his efforts of focussing on the world and its pressing demands. All seemed to pass in slow motion. For some reasons it was funny, but his brain was telling him that there was nothing funny about the situation. 

From his position of lying behind the couch, all he could see was bodiless feet moving around, blood on the floorboards. Oh crap, there it was. It wasn't supposed to have been like that. Where were Nick and Catherine? He wanted to get up, to get a view of the room. His right hand instinctively went for his gun, or that was he had planned. Jarring pain was all he got, nothing moved. Oh, carp. He craned his head to get a view of the damage. The jacket was ruined, a whole in it, blood drenching the fabric. It didn't look like it was his arm. That was weird. Somehow he had the feeling that his brain was not really up to speed. This assessment was confirmed when he was suddenly moved by hands he had not noticed before. His view of the floorboards changed to a view of the ceiling which seamlessly morphed into the unsteady, blurred picture of an uniformed police officer.

"Detective Brass, can you tell me what happened?" The voice was young.

"She had a gun." Brass said the first thing that came to mind, he himself not sure why.

"Mrs. Jansen", he added to clarify.

~~~~

Catherine was far from the troubles of Nick and Brass. She was far away in the vast plains of oblivion, where no memory or feeling existed.


	3. Heimspiel

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Grissom was in his office. looking over scene photographs when the phone rang. The news wasn't good. A shooting at the Jansen residence. The name immediately brought up images of grizzly possibilities. Catherine and Nick had gone there together with Brass on their case. He had overheard Nick and Catherine earlier they seemed sure that they were going to break the case. Something must have gone wrong. The worst case scenario that he had constructed in his mind in a matter of seconds turned out not to be true, when the unknown officer on the phone gave him the details. No dead bodies, just minor injuries. Unfortunately the officer had no more details to offer. Grissom told him that he would be there as fast as he could, but asked for the name of the hospital the injured had been taken too. He was going to check on his people first, the scene wasn't going anywhere. Besides, Warrick or Sara could get started there already.

He hurried into the break room where Sara and Warrick were passing the time, not having any case work right now. Their last case had been solved last shift and so far the night in Vegas seemed to have been peaceful. Or the bodies of the not so peaceful events had not been found yet, as Warrick sometimes thought cynically. When he saw Grissom's grim expression he knew that more than just a "normal" case was up.

"Sara, Warrick, we have a 444, Brass, Catherine and Nick were ambushed at their scene."

Sara and Warrick leapt up from their chairs.

"Oh God, how are they?" Sara asked, shocked.

"The officer didn't have any detail, but they found no bodies."

Slightly relieved, Sara and Warrick followed Grissom to the parking lot.

Note: Again, short chapter, but I hope it's still ok as I'm posting this at once.


	4. Reconnected

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

When it all came back to him it was like an explosion inside his head. It all sped past him like the fast-forward of a DVD. He had hit Catherine instead of Mrs Jansen. At least he thought he had. Oh God, what if he had killed her. Oh no. How could this have happened? He had find out. For that he first had to get up. That's were things started to get complicated. As soon as he started to push himself up, he was held down again. Opening his eyes, might be a good idea. In doing so, he came face to face with a severe looking nurse. 

"Mr. Stokes, please hold still, so that we can examine you."

He mumbled something unintelligibly, and tried evading her grasp.

"Please Mr. Stokes, keep calm you will be fine." This time her tone was irritated.

He only semi-registered what she said and got up to a sitting position.

"Mr Stokes, I will be forced to give you a sedative if you don't calm down", she threatened.

~~~~

Brass' head had cleared up fairly quickly. In spite of the bumpy ride in the ambulance, which had done he great job of further jarring his injured arm, he felt pretty decent right now, all things considered. He suspected that the painkillers played a fairly large role in this. Anyway, now that the previously excruciating pain in his arm was reduced to a dull ache, and that the fuzzy feeling has receded, he was ready to get the day's events in order. Everything was nice an fine up until the point when they had walked into the living room and opened the drawers in the base of the couch. Then it was all blurry, clarity recommencing sometime on his ride to the hospital, where he still was, waiting for Gil Grissom and his gang to show up, which should be any minute. His expectations were fulfilled promptly when Gil and Sara came hastily walking down the corridor towards him.

"Hi, Gil."

"You okay", Gil seemed surprised to see him sitting on a bench in the corridor. "The doctor just told us you had been shot."

"Grazed ",Brass corrected him. They are even letting me go, so it can't be serious. "Where are Nick and Catherine?"

Grissom and Sara both stared at him in response.

"We thought you could tell us. Nick is at the hospital. He's fine, but still in shock. Catherine wasn't in the house with you. "

"Last thing I remember she was there, Brass commented dryly, his outlook had just turned bleak. I take it Mrs Jansen is gone as well."

"Yes, police are looking for her right now", it was the first time Sara spoke.

"There was an uncomfortable pause", both Sara and Brass were looking at Grissom, expecting him to give an order, anything. Grissom seemed to become aware of this. "Okay, Sara you stay here and wait for Nick to wake up, call me as soon as he does. I will drive you home, then get back to the scene", he said turning to Brass.

Brass was about to complain that he was not inclined to spends the remainder of the night on his couch, watching TV, but thought better of it.

~~~~

On the drive, he told Grissom what little he remembered of the events. Before he dropped him of at his house, however, Grissom's cell went off. It was Catherine.

"Catherine, are you okay?"

"I think so", her voice was shaky.

"Where are you?"

"I'm not sure, it looks like a basement or garage. She hesitated. Mrs, Jansen is here, she's dead. There are more dead bodies here."

Grissom could pick up voices in the background.

"Catherine, who else is there? What are those noises?"

"I don't know, there is someone in this building, whatever it is." 

"Grissom, there is blood all over me, I think I'm injured", her voice, usually very sure, was suddenly insecure. It was evident that she was still in shock.

The noise in the background increased, shouting.

"The police is here," Catherine said.

"Good, tell them what happened." He was just about to continue when he noticed that Catherine had switched off.

"She okay?" Brass asked, only having had their end of the conversation.

Before Grissom got a chance to answer his cell rang again, this time it was Warrick "Grissom, we found both Catherine and Mrs Jansen, in the basement. Some kind of concealed chamber of horrors. Looks like Catherine's been hurt, but nothing too serious. An ambulance is bringing her to the hospital right now. Look, you better get here, there are a lot more bodies."

~~~~

Return from the land of oblivion was all but gentle, it was accompanied by a violent assault of sensory information, sounds, feeling and smells. Voices, footsteps, a soft surface underneath, something lying on her, covering her, antiseptic smell. When she tried to turn away from the evil disturbances, a sharp pain in her side persuaded her otherwise and jerked her completely into reality. The white ceiling, white wall and antiseptic smell combined into the picture of a hospital room. A quick self assessment revealed, a bandaged spot in her side, she looked at her hands. Bruised knuckles, signs of a struggled, her training kicked in. She remembered being in a room, concrete floor, cold, several bodies wrapped in clear plastic sheets. Mrs Jansen on the floor, dead, her clothes covered in blood. The blood must have been from her injury in her side. Had she struggled with Mrs Jansen and been knocked out during the struggle, but then how had she shot her, assuming it had been her. She didn't remember whether she still had had her gun. It was frustrating. She pressed to calling button, hoping she could get some information from the nurse.


	5. Reconstruction

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Nick woke up feeling subdued, but calm. He recalled what had happened the previous evening, or has it been longer ago. Anyways, he knew everything that had happened, but it felt odd, distant, he wasn't upset or frightened. Everything felt like through a thick layer of  The urgency he had felt before to find out what ha happened had disappeared. What had they given him?

He looked around the room. Sara was sitting in a chair, reading some magazine He could not see the cover, but it was probably some scientific journal.

"Hey Sara"

"Hey Nick, you are you?"

"Okay, a bit groggy", he had to think to get the sentence together.

"The others?"

"They will be fine, don't worry" Sara avoided details. Nick either didn't notice or didn't pick her on it.

"Did they tell you how long I have to stay?"

"Till the morning."

"Good", he wasn't sure whether or not he meant it.

"Don't you have to get back to the scene?"

"Well, Grissom and Warrick are all over it" Normally she would have questioned his more or less discrete attempt at getting rid of her, but decided to leave it for now. He probably just need to be alone to sort things out.

"You'll be ok?"

"Sure" he hoped that his voice didn't show that he wasn't.

"When they release you, just call and someone from CSI will pick you up."

Only when Sara had left, he noticed that Sara had been strangely avoiding. He wondered why she had not asked him any questions regarding what had happened. Well after what he had pulled at the scene, the doctors had probably told her not to upset him with questions.

After leaving the his room, Sara headed to the nearest payphone, inserted a coin and called Grissom.

"Hi, Grissom. I'm just calling to tell you that Nick woke up. The doctor wouldn't let me ask questions yet, apparently he got very upset before and they had to give him a sedative. They are releasing him tomorrow probably.  I wonder what happened to spook him like that? Have you found anything yet?"

"We've found more bodies in the basement. It'll be a while before we are done"

"I'm coming over now to give you and Warrick a hand" 

~~Next Morning~~

"Mrs. Jansen died of a gunshot wound to the chest. Death was immediate. But she had been shot a few minutes prior to the fatal shot. A bullet to the side. No vital organs were hit, which is a wonder. She would have slowly bled to death. Signs of a struggle, scratches on her neck, on blood her knuckles. But I have found something that might interest you. There were traces of fabric in her wound. It is fairly common that there are traces of fibres from the victim's clothes in a wound, but these don't look like they came from what she was wearing. I sent both bullets from her chest, samples of the blood, as well as the fibres up to the lab." Doc Robbins gave Grissom the main results from the post. 

"Good, what about GSR on her hands?"

"Her hands tested positive for GSR, she did fire a gun. Before Grissom could ask, he added, I haven't processed the other bodies found in the basement yet. I'll page you then."

Further search of the premises had revealed a total of 5 bodies, stashed in the basement, excluding Mrs Jansen. The women, all in her early 20ties, were not yet identified. They had been dead for times ranging from a few days to more than a year, based on initial examination. The police suspected they were illegal immigrants, which Mrs Jansen had hired as domestics. They had dug a bullet from the living room wall, one from the upper rim of the couch and one from the floor. The report on the bullets was going to be done in an hour at the latest, Bobby Dawson had promised Grissom when he had checked on it for the second time.

Frustrated at the fact that no matter what he did, it would take time until they could clear up what had happened, he made his way back to his office, dreading the prospect of another message left by Detective Hiller, the officer investigating the shooting.

He almost bumped into Greg.

"Careful there Grissom."

"I've got the result you want."

"Great", he followed Greg to the lab.

"First: blood."

"The blood on the floor is from three people. Catherine, Brass and Diana Jansen. No surprise. Blood Diane Jansen's hands is Catherine's. DNA gave no matches for the 5 bodies in the basement however."

"Second: fibres. The fibres from the couch match those found on the body of our victim Nura Fadira. The fibres from the gunshot wounds are interesting. From the 1st wound in the side, they are from her shirt, white cotton, and from Catherine's blouse, light-blue cotton-synthetics mix. In her chest wound were only white cotton fibres. "

"So when Catherine was grazed, the bullet travelled on, hitting Mrs Jansen. Since it had first ripped Catherine's blouse, the fibres were transmitted to the wound."

"Question here is, who was the target, Catherine or Mrs Jansen?"

"We'll know us soon as the ballistics report is done."

The ballistics report came on the minute when Bobby Dawson had promised it. From the total of  four bullets, two were from Diane Jansen's gun, one from Catherine's gun and one from Nick's gun. Mrs. Jansen had fired that shot which had grazed Brass and the one which had hit the living room wall. Nick had fired the shit which had wounded both Catherine and Diane Jansen, so the intended target of the shot had been Mrs Jansen. While there was no doubt about this for Grissom, he could imagine that Detective Hiller would find some uncomfortable questions to ask regarding this. Catherine had then fired the shot which had killed Mrs Jansen.

Surprisingly Grissom's concerns regarding the interview didn't come to pass.  Even though Catherine didn't recall all that had happened, her story checked with the evidence they had found.

"I'm not sure exactly how we got to that room in the basement. When she was down, I ran away from her, but she caught up with me. I remember fighting, trying to keep her from shooting me. A one point she dropped her gun, but was reaching for it. This is when I had to chance to …well to shot her. Catherine ended her account. Her demeanour was calm. Grissom wondered whether the shock over having had to kill a person would set in later. However, Catherine had been forced to use her gun before and had dealt with it very well.

"That'll be all, Ms Willows" Detective Hiller said and got up. "We'll need for you to sign your statement at the station once you are recovered."

Nick couldn't honestly say that he felt up to going to the station and giving his statement, but he would ever admit it. So when Grissom had asked him whether it was ok for him he had agreed. Now he was sitting with Detective Hiller and Grissom.  He had done fine up until the point where Diane Jansen had grabbed Catherine. 

"Then …then there was a shot, I could really see where it had gone and then, he struggled, embarrassed at his failure to put his mental images into words. It wasn't so much the consequences that he was afraid of, it was of seeing himself as the person responsible that scared him the most.

"Is it true that you fired your gun at Mrs Diane Jansen?"

"Yes, I was sure she would kill us, I mean she had..."The very memory of it scared him.

Grissom, usually not to most sensitive person towards human emotions, decided to intervene.

"It's all right Nick. We know that it was self-defence, she fired at you. You had good reason to believe that your life was in danger."

The were standing in the living room, the scene of whatever had taken place that had shocked two CSIs. Okay, let's replay it. Jim, you were there, so you know exactly where everyone was standing.

"Catherine and I were at the couch. He pointed to the stop where it had stood. Nick was behind us, I think close to the door into the corridor, but I could really see him. Mrs Jansen was standing right next to me. "

"Sara, you are Catherine, Warrick you are Nick, and I am Mrs Jansen."

Everyone moved into their respective places.

"I open the drawer, the Mrs Jansen hits me over the head, I go down." Brass sat down on the floor.

"We found traced of your blood on a bottle. The bottle was probably standing on this table, Grissom pointed to a small table. She grabbed to first thing she could reach. Out of impulse. Now, Brass is on the floor and I grab Catherine. From somewhere I got a gun. A struggle ensues, and a shot is fired, grazing you Jim. "

"That tallies, the bullet we pulled from the floorboard was fired at  a low angle." Sara pointed out.

"Accidental shot during a struggle."

"Means I got lucky", Brass commented, cynically.

"Very lucky. Mrs Jansen gains the upper hand. According to Nick, she threatens to kill Catherine and then fires a shot in his direction to prove her point."

"Yeah, the bullet whole here in the wall, proves it. Warrick pointed to the wall. Nick seizes to opportunity, seeing that he won't be able to talk her out of it and fires at her."

"He gets her, but also get Catherine."

"Accident. "

"Both go down for a moment. Catherine gets to her feet first and runs."

"Why not use her gun?"

"Instinct, there are two options fight or flight. Option fight didn't work before, now it's option flight. At this point we don't think anymore. Catherine runs from the room." Grissom theorized"

"Yeah, but how did she end up in the cellar and didn't go for the front door?" Warrick wondered. 

None of them knew an answer to this.


	6. And now?

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

~Two days later~

"Well, the report makes one thing clear, your people acted legitimately", Detective Hiller closed the report Grissom had handed him 5 minutes ago. 5 long minutes of reading and waiting. "Some things however remain unclear."

Grissom had been sure this would come up. 

"How did Ms Willows get into the room in the basement? It took the officers 20 minutes to find it."

"I don't know, I know is much as you do." Grissom said.

Hiller did not comment on this, but Grissom could tell that he didn't believe him.

But belief or no belief the investigation was officially over. But the repercussions were not, he suspected. The loose ends in this case bothered him. But it was never possible to retrace every singly seconds of a crime, evidence told them a lot, but sometimes it could not tell them everything, then they had to go back to the human participants. He didn't like when that happened. Partly because it always felt somewhat wrong to him as a scientist when science seemed to fail him and because human behaviour was impossible predict, especially during a crisis situation. Normal thinking and judgment were suspended, the instinctive drive for survival took over. People did what their subconscious had picked as the best way to protect one's life.  This was often difficult to accept both for those acting and for those trying to understand their actions.

~~~~

When Grissom returned to the CSI after his talk with the Detective Hiller from internal affairs, Nightshift was already waiting for him in the break room. Tense, waiting for new of the investigation's outcome.  Aside from Catherine everyone was there, even Nick, who looked like he would prefer to be anywhere else right now.

"Everything's fine, the investigation is officially closed", he told them. "Now we have to ID the 5 women from the basement." Everyone took this as a sign to get back to work. Only Nick stayed behind, assuring Warrick that he was indeed fine.

~~~~

"Can I come in?" Nick was standing in the doorframe of Grissom's office. 

"Sure, what it is?"

"It's about me shooting Catherine…"

"Don't worry it has been ruled as an accident." Grissom interrupted, assuming that Nick was worried about legal consequences. Nick wondered whether his boss was genuinely unaware of the human interaction issues linked to this, or whether he was just avoiding to address to issue. Well, he wasn't going to find out.

 "It can happened to anyone, but you made the right call. The situation warranted it. She fired at you first." Grissom continued, his tone having a distinct finality to it.

"But…" Nick wanted to correct Grissom, that this was not the order in which things had happened, but then he let it go. He was not going to drag anyone else into this. It was bad enough that he had messed up when things got difficult. He had to face it, he wasn't cut out for this. As long as things were quiet he did fine, but when…

"Take the rest of the shift off, Nick. Get some rest at home. Better yet, take the rest of the week off." Grissom interrupted his dark musings.

"Thanks", Nick stumbled out of Grissom's office not sure whether a "thank-you" was the appropriate response. Grissom giving him the rest of the week off. Did he think that he couldn't handle the stress. Well, if he did, he wasn't far from the truth, Nick thought bitterly. When it counted he had reacted badly, endangering his co-workers. He probably shouldn't even carry a weapon.

~~~~

After a long debate with himself, Nick had decided that he needed to talk with Catherine. He drove out to the hospital. Visiting hour were long over, but flashing his CSI ID at the duty nurse, spared him any trouble.

Catherine was flipping through some magazine when he entered. 

"Hi Nick."

"Hi Catherine."

A pause during which neither of them knew what to say ensued.

"Hiller's final report clears both of us." 

"Good, did you come to tell me that."

"No, actually, I wanted to ask you" Nick was at a loss for words now.

"You said that Mrs Jansen fired at me first before I fired at her. But…"

Catherine interrupted him before he had a chance to finish. 

"You did the right thing, it doesn't matter who fired at whom first, it was a good shooting no matter what."

Nick was not happy about this. He was not sure whether he was more stunned at Catherine tweaking the events to suit them, or at his own incompetence. The embarrassment that he had so completely been taken off his feet by what had happened was still fresh. Catherine seemed to handle it a lot better than he did. Hell, anyone would have handled that better than he had. Thoughts like this had chased him incessantly, ever since he had come to in the hospital, after the incident.  But who was he to accuse her of lying, after all when he had learned of what she had said, he had not spoken out, had not said that it had been different. As much as he liked to belief it, he had not let a lie pass to avoid Catherine getting into trouble, he had done so for himself, it made things easier to live with. But it was still going to be hard enough.

He noticed Catherine looking at him, expectantly.

"Thanks then" he managed.

~~~~

After Nick had left, Catherine was left to her own demons, which were far closer to the surface than she would ever admit. She considered herself to be strong, able to handle everything. What had happened at Mrs Jansen's house at cracked that belief. That hurt. The painful realisation that when things had gotten Only weak, fragile people block out memories like this, she thought. Rationally she knew this not to be true, but the thought still followed her. While she was having trouble rationalising her own failure, her testimony presented less of a problem to her. It made no sense to get Nick into trouble needlessly when his action had probably saved her life and that of the others.

The End.

Note: Okay, some people will probably think it would be outside Catherine's character to lie, but based on the episodes of CSI which I have seen (1st season and two mid 3rd season), I think it's conceivable. Let me know what you think.


End file.
